The Prince Rupert Rampage played host to two teams from the Cariboo this weekend, and came up short in both games.
On Saturday night the Rampage faced off with the Williams Lake Stampeders in front of a packed house, and started strong with Josh Kierce putting Prince Rupert on the board after a soft shot went five-hole just over five minutes into the first for the only goal of the period.
In the second, the Rampage found themselves on an extended five-on-three less than a minute in but were unable to capitalize. From there the period was all Williams Lake. Ryan Conlin tied things up on the pwoerplay with 13:32 to go, and a blast from the top of the circle by Brent McIsaac on the powerplay gave the Stampeders the lead.
With eight minutes to go in the second, Jean-Luc Fournier of the Rampage was assessed a five-minute major and a game misconduct for a hit from behind and that would prove to be costly. After two-minutes of four-on-four hockey due to a complimentary Stampeders penalty, Nathan Zurak made the Rampage pay by scoring a natural hat trick within a three-minute window. Zurak spun and fired home a goal with 5:48 to play, went blocker-side with 4:43 to go and went blocker-side again with 3:51 to play to put Prince Rupert down 5-1.
That would be all the scoring in the period and in the game, giving the Rampage much to think about going into Sunday.
On Sunday, the Quesnel Kangaroos came out firing on all cylinders. Nick Tomassetti opened the scoring just over six minutes into the period, Joel Boyetchko put Quesnel up by two just over halfway through the first and Tomassetti made it 3-0 with 2:09 to play leaving the Rampage down 3-0 heading into the second.
But in the second the Rampage fought back. Jared Davis found the back of the net less than five minutes in, Jean-Luc Fournier pulled the team to within one less than two minutes later and, with 3:21 to go, Kory Movald tied things up heading into the third.
The final period was a lot of back and forth action until, with 5:40 to play, Quesnel’s Justin Fulton cut in alone and backhanded in his own rebound to give Quesnel a 4-3 lead. That goal would prove to be the winner as the Rampage ended the weekend without a win.
On Saturday night the team will face off with the Kitimat Ice Demons, who finished this weekend with a win over Quesnel and a 12-4 crushing of the Lac La Hache Tomahawks. Look for results from that game next week.